DENVER – The air was rare, and so it was that the Detroit Pistons survived a late scare to start their three-game Western Conference road trip with a win.
Piston-killer Jamaal Murray missed two of three free throws with 0.7 seconds left as the Pistons screamed ‘Denver Nuggets 109-107’ at the Ball Arena.
They were led by Cade Cunningham (22 points, 11 assists) and Tobias Harris (22 points, eight rebounds), who hit the winning free throws late in the fourth quarter.
The Pistons led by 18 points in the second quarter, but a Nuggets run late in the fourth cut it to 105-104 with a minute to go.
Harris hit a clutch jumper from midrange to extend the lead to three, but Javonte Green fouled Jamal Murray on a 3-point attempt with 3.5 seconds left.
With a chance to tie the game, Murray missed the first free throw but made the next two to make it a one-point game again.
Harris went to the line with two seconds left, and both pushed the lead to three, 109-106. But with 0.7 seconds left, Green fouled Murray on another 3-point attempt.
This time, Murray made the first but missed the second, sealing the win for the Pistons.
He intentionally missed the third free throw and the Nuggets were unable to corral the rebound. They did a terrific job defensively on Murray, who finished with 24 points and 10 assists but shot 7-for-18.
The Nuggets were without Nikola Jokic (left kneecap), Aaron Gordon (right knee strain), Cameron Johnson (right kneecap) and Christian Brown (left ankle sprain). The Pistons were without Caris LeVert (illness) for the third straight game.
The win improved the Pistons to 34–11 and extended their lead over the Boston Celtics as the top seed in the Eastern Conference to 5½ games and their lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Central Division to 7½ games.
Next, the Pistons head to Phoenix to take on the Suns on Thursday (9 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Detroit) before finishing the trip the following night against the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco.
Pistons withstand late run from Nuggets, Murray
The Pistons had a strong defensive start, limiting the Nuggets to 31.6% shooting in the first quarter and ending with a 13-point lead at 31-18. After Denver opened the game on a pair of free throws by Jamal Murray, Cunningham took the lead with a layup a minute into the first quarter.
But it came late in the fourth when a 3-point play from Murray cut their lead to four, 99-95, with 3:03 to play. Murray cut it to two with a layup, but a stepback midrange jumper by Cunningham and a layup by Harris stretched it to six, 103-97, at the 1:33 mark.
Murray, Denver’s star guard who had averaged better than 30 points against the Pistons in the previous three games, left late in the fourth.
A turnaround jumper on Green cut it back to four, and then former Piston Tim Hardaway Jr knocked down a 3-pointer to make it one, 103-102, with 56.4 seconds on the clock.
But Murray missed the most important shot of the night when he clanked the first of his three free throws with 3.5 seconds left and then his second free throw attempt with 0.7 seconds left to give the Nuggets a chance to send the game into overtime.
Pistons again struggle from 3
The Pistons led the Nuggets for nearly the entire night while enduring their worst performance from
They were 2-for-21 through the middle of the third quarter before knocking down four of their final five attempts of the period.
The Greens, who shot 41.1% from 3 (23-for-56) since Dec. 23, dropped their first 3 downs of the game to extend their lead to 11, 27-16, late in the first quarter. He and Holland were the only Pistons to make 3-pointers when Holland knocked down his second of the game with 3:33 left in the third. During that time, Detroit was 3-for-22 as a team
Jaden Ivey brought some much-needed shotmaking off the bench, hitting a deep stepback 3-pointer with 2:11 left in the third. He then hit another third-quarter buzzer-beating 3, pushing the lead to double digits, 82-72.
Two of the Pistons’ worst performances from 3 this season have come in their last three games after hitting just seven of their 32 attempts (21.9%) in a Jan. 23 loss to the Houston Rockets.
Two games ago, they had one of their best 3-point performances, going 16-for-31 (51.6%) in Sunday’s Kings over Sacra game.
Part of the reason is that Duncan Robinson is in a mini-slump, going 3-for-8 against the Nuggets and 2-for-8 against the Rockets. Robinson had just two points Tuesday — on a dunk in the fou
